A little over two years ago at age 16, I got my license. Living in the suburbs, I desperately needed a car to secure my freedom, but I had no money to purchase one. I weighed my options; get a job at a food place, get a job at a retail store, or find another way to make money. I started wondering if I could make money with a car, but I was too young to drive for Uber. However, I loved Tesla’s, and I knew that Tesla had a happiness guarantee program, promising that you could return a leased or financed car within three months, no questions asked. I figured that I could make about $1,500 a month driving people back and forth between LA and Vegas on the weekends, which would pay the lease and insurance, and then I’d have a Tesla for free on the weekdays. So I set to work, putting out Craigslist ads for “LA to Vegas in a Tesla - $85’.

Thanks to the efforts of some seasoned entrepreneurs who helped me push this forward, this concept has developed into Tesloop, the world’s first sustainable mobility service, as well as the first “mobility application” built on top of the Tesla platform.

We have now served over 10,000 customers, and beyond our initial route from LA to Las Vegas route, we now service Palm Springs, Orange County and San Diego with 6 - 12 round trips per day, and bookings growing by over 30% each month with nearly all 5-star customer ratings.

It has become clear that Teslas are the first in a new breed of transportation technologies that are about to radically transform the transportation landscape. As these vehicles combine increasingly sophisticated electric drivetrains with autonomous driving features, for the first time, it’s now possible to make a transportation system that’s clean, safe, healthy, human-friendly, and efficient.

When I started Tesloop, I was unfamiliar with blockchain, as well as the accompanying concept of cryptoeconomics. After learning a bit about them, I initially thought these have no relevance to IRL things like transportation. But during a dinner at Mountaingate, a Los Angeles based thought exchange community, I heard some crypto-heads talk about the possible applications of cryptoeconomics, and how these could be used to create network effects and provide incentives and disincentives for players in a system. I started getting very interested in cryptoeconomics, and started researching ICOs and cryptocurrencies, wondering how they might be applied to the world of transportation. I even applied to do an ICO pitch at StartEngine in Santa Monica.

My thinking was: unlike other cars sold today, Teslas are the first example of a fundamentally digitally controlled automobile. They can be remotely tracked, queried, and controlled through programmatic interfaces. This digital attribute seemed like the key ingredient for a perfect for a crypto enforced system. And such a system could eventually be truly decentralized and thus more resilient than any centrally managed system.

The goals seem clear: as a society we want to ensure that the leading mobility system of the future will be transparent, open, and focussed on the true needs of the community of travelers.

However, after exhaustively searching the internet, I could find very little guidance on how to think about formulating the token mechanics to support a transportation system.

And then I heard from StartEngine that I had been selected to pitch at their ICO summit on November 10th. But I had one problem: Like the majority of people, I don’t know how to “do” an ICO.

So I now have 10 days to figure out how could we structure the crypto-transportation future? And I’ve come up with a plan to educate myself and inform my pitch. Over the next 10 days, I’m looking for help from anyone who has insight into the space. I want to figure out mechanics, launch strategy, and how to navigate the array of regulations, as well as brainstorm ideas around making our token offering as compelling as possible. And in doing so, hopefully help others understand how they can do the same thing with their businesses or dreams.

It’s clear to me now that next year as Tesla starts to mass produce Model 3 vehicles, a three sided marketplace will inevitably emerge connecting Tesla owners, people who want to drive them, and people who want to be driven in them. This may be the ideal backdrop for a Transportation Token: TesKoin *tentatively named*

However, there's one thing I do know. Sustainable transportation needs to win, and the sooner the better for everyone. Every day we don’t prioritize the transition to sustainable vehicles, we create greater pressure on our health as a society, our communities, and the planet’s ecosystems.

So if you have any ideas on how to leverage new technologies and concepts, and can help me apply them, I’d love to talk with you - right away. Please contact me at haydns@tesloop.com